Keep Australia Beautiful Sustainable Cities Awards

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (14:56): My question is to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation.

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: No.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: No. My question is to the minister in another capacity, as Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, although he holds those ministries as well. Will the minister inform the chamber about the winners of this year's KAB Sustainable Cities Awards?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (14:56): Thank you, Mr President; we should highlight the appropriate ministry, I think. When the Hon. Mr Maher is writing these questions, Mr President, we might highlight the appropriate portfolio responsibility.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The honourable member has the floor.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: I thank the honourable member for his very important question. It was a very great pleasure to attend the KAB Sustainable Cities Awards at the new Tonsley TAFE on Friday 28 November. Keep Australia Beautiful is a not-for-profit organisation, as we all know, that runs a series of programs to promote awareness and behavioural change regarding the environment and sustainability.

The Keep Australia Beautiful Sustainable Cities Awards is a celebration of the outstanding achievements of councils and community groups across Australia. The 2014 awards event was hosted by the City of Marion, which was last year's national winner. One of the clearest impressions that I took away from the awards ceremony, when I was there for a short time—and I understand my colleagues the Hon. Michelle Lensink and the member for Bright were there as well—was the obvious community spirit and the obvious partnership approach that these cities and organisations have.

I mentioned, of course, in my opening remarks at the function, President Barack Obama talking to an audience at Queensland University in Brisbane during his recent G20 Leaders Summit, when he said, particularly addressing young people, 'But let me say particularly…to the young people here, combating climate change cannot be the work of governments alone.'

I use that as my major refrain, because he was echoing something that we in South Australia just know intrinsically and have long understood and have made one of our strong suits. That is, we know we must work together if we are to combat many of the challenges that face our state and, in particular, in this instance, if we are to combat the environmental threats that are facing our state, our nation and our world.

Thanks to that approach, South Australia has become a national and, in some cases, a world leader in areas such as climate change adaptation, renewable energy infrastructure, recycling rates and stormwater capture. This government, of course, time and time again, particularly when we are asked in this chamber, can demonstrate that we are not afraid of setting ambitious targets and consistently putting environmental issues on the agenda. We can achieve these impressive results, however, only because local government, industry and the community have been willing to play their part alongside the state government. It is this great collaboration, if you like, that we celebrated during the Sustainable Cities Awards.

It was particularly fitting that the awards event was held at the new Sustainable Industries Education Centre at Tonsley TAFE. The Tonsley development is integrating high-value manufacturing, education and research alongside residential and community spaces. It will create much needed industry, infrastructure and opportunities for South Australians but, in particular, for the south of Adelaide and, as a great example of smart partnership and collaboration, it will have significant flow-on benefits for all of the surrounding areas as well as for the environment.

The state government, for example, has invested around $250 million into the redevelopment, and this is expected to attract around $1 billion of private investment, I am told. In addition, the City of Marion's strong commitment to the Tonsley redevelopment has played an important role in this success.

There are many examples, of course, of our state having effective partnerships across many areas which achieve great results. We can only think, for example, of the state government's partnership with KESAB over many years, which has led to a project addressing the recycling of soft plastics, which have traditionally presented problems in the recycling chain. Members would probably know that they need to bundle up their soft plastics and take them to a certain supermarket (Coles, I think) and deposit them in those bins they provide near their checkouts. That plastic is taken and refined and used to make, I understand, outdoor plastic furniture, which is often donated to communities and schools.

Of course, local government is a very important player in this partnership model, and they, working with their communities, play a very important leadership role when it comes to championing effective change. I congratulate all the winners and finalists of the 2014 Sustainable Cities Awards. The City of Holdfast Bay won the 2014 heritage and cultural award category in a tie, I understand, with the City of Bunbury in Western Australia; it couldn't have been much closer.

KAB, which judged the South Australian entries, commended the outstanding features of Holdfast Bay's entry, including simultaneously embracing and celebrating its original Indigenous and post-colonisation heritage. The judges remarked that, in doing so, the local council is enhancing natural areas of significance and beautifying and repurposing existing structures from a built environment.

In particular, the judges were impressed by the rollout of kitchen organic baskets to 17,000 homes to help reduce waste; coastal dune and gully restoration activities; the establishment of a community garden at Glenelg North; and an indigenous water-wise garden. Congratulations must go to all the award applicants and winners from around the state and around the country for their outstanding contributions.

I sincerely thank KAB not only for organising such a wonderful awards event but also for their continued partnership and commitment to creating positive change through grassroots engagement and strong industry and local government alliances. I am confident that, if we continue to work together in this manner, we will be in a much stronger position to address the challenges facing our environment, where all of us in the community work together.